There are few things more Jewish than arguing about the correct answer, so perhaps it’s no surprise that Pini Stimler has had such a legendary run on Countdown.
The 29-year-old, who attends Hendon Adath Synagogue, appeared on the Channel 4 game show last month.
He achieved the elite “Octochamp” status by winning eight consecutive games, the maximum number before a player is “retired” and replaced.
To celebrate the feat and recognise the outpouring of support from the local community, he sponsored the kiddush at his synagogue on the Shabbat after his final appearance.
“The response from the community has been amazing,” Stimler told the JC. “The first day I was on, I suddenly got flooded with WhatsApp messages, and my parents were forwarding me more.
“I think one person caught me on there, and it’s just how things travel in our community, right?
“Random people were telling me, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re tuning in every day.’ To kind of have a little fan club, I did not expect it.”
He did not disappoint his newfound fanbase. After overcoming his first opponent, Sandy Aiton – who was himself on a three-game winning streak – he powered through his next seven challengers. In five of his eight games, his win was confirmed before the conundrum, the finale round of each show. And in the three where it was not, he got the crucial conundrum before his opponent. The longest time he took for any of the three was just 13 seconds.
He achieved his best score in his final game, a stunning 126, and spotted three nine-letter words during his run: FEUDALIST, REPULSION, and GASOLINES.
By the time he departed, co-presenter Rachel Riley, who is also Jewish, was referring to him as “the kingpin”.
But if it wasn’t for his wife, the show may never have been graced with Stimler’s smarts.
“She encouraged me to do the application,” he said.
“I wouldn’t call myself a shy person, but at the same time, you don’t every day think ‘Oh yeah, I want to apply to be on the telly.’”
Pini Stimler appearing on Countdown (Credit: Channel 4)[Missing Credit]
He has a history with word games; while studying at yeshivah in Israel, he attended Scrabble clubs in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and since moving back to London he has appeared in the London Scrabble League. All of that culminated in an international Scrabble tournament in Malta around eight years ago.
But those days are behind him, said Stimler, who works as a solutions consultant.
“I’ve got a family now, three kids, so the Scrabbling is a bit behind me. So it’s more casual now, a game of Scrabble on a Shabbat afternoon.”
He nevertheless managed to make the time for Countdown, and didn’t tell anyone that he was going on the show besides his wife.
“I thought to myself, ‘All I want to do is win one’,” he said. “I just wanted a teapot in my hand, as it were.
“And I thought to myself that if I don’t win any, I just won’t tell anyone I’ve been on.”
The word-game fanatic found it surreal when entering the iconic set for the first time.
“It’s almost like stepping into Oz or something,” he said. “It’s a bit of a mind-boggle, but quite amazing. And it looks exactly like it looks on the TV.”
Likewise, he said that the presenters Riley and Colin Murray, as well as “Dictionary Corner” fixture Susie Dent and all other staff were “really welcoming and sweet”, and “very celebratory, especially on my eighth win”.
Nevertheless, it was “stressful at times”, he said. “It’s quite intense. The limelight’s on you.
“It’s a contest, right? I think the team does very well to relax you into it.
“But you want to do the best that you can, so there is that pressure.”
Unsurprisingly, he felt the biggest pressure during the “crucial” conundrums. “That was when it was really nerve-wracking.
“I think the adrenaline forces part of your brain to either see things more quickly or completely shut down – fortunately it seemed to work in my favour.
“Everyone who was watching told me they were exceedingly stressed and have no nails left. I don’t think I did either.”
“It was pretty tiring,” he added. “You can see my performance wanes a little towards the end of the week.
“I was very happy to be refreshed on the Monday when I came back for my final three episodes.”
Stimler said he has been very pleased with the level of support he has received from the Jewish community and loved ones – none more so than his three children, aged six, four, and two.
“We had readied them for it by putting on Countdown a bit in the background over the previous couple of weeks,” he explained.
“When they spotted me on screen, they were like, ‘That’s Daddy, Daddy’s on Countdown, Daddy’s on Countdown!’
“They were jumping up and down, very excited.”
It is unlikely to be the last time Countdown watchers will see Stimler on their screens, as at the end of each series the eight top performing players are invited back for the finals.
According to Stimler, in only “one or two series ever” – from a show that’s been running for 46 years – have there been more than eight Octochamps – so it would take an almost unprecedented scenario for him not to return.
For JC readers thinking of trying their hand at the show, he has some simple advice.
“Finding your prefixes and suffixes helps,” he said. “So your ‘-est’ and ‘-ing’ endings. That’s a useful way to get long-ish words.”
“And just play word games,” he continued.
“But do it for enjoyment’s sake. Players better than me study word lists, stem lists, combinations of eight-letter words that can hook to make nine-letter words… I don’t do that.
“I don’t like learning things by rote, and I don’t find that fun.
“I do it for the love of the game, I suppose. A purist.”
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